Bob Davidson
Mary Rowell Jackman Professor of Humanities
Director, Northrop Frye Centre
Bob Davidson, Mary Rowell Jackman Professor of Humanities and faculty at the Culinaria Research Centre, specializes in Modern Spanish & Catalan Literature and Culture with an emphasis on food, drink, and hospitality. Prof. Davidson is the author of Jazz Age Barcelona (U of Toronto Press, 2009; shortlisted for the Canada Prize in the Humanities) and The Hotel: Occupied Space (U of Toronto Press, 2018).
Current projects include a study of material culture and early 20th-century Spanish and Catalan narrative (By and About Things) and a new research project entitled The Scent of Spain: Fragrance, Odour and Culture that considers key fragrances and scents that contributed to the Spanish olfactory environment from the beginning of the modern fragrance industry in the country to the early 2000s.
He is the founder and co-editor of UTP’s Toronto Iberic book series and has held visiting positions at The Johns Hopkins University, Queen Mary - University of London (Institut Ramon Llull Visiting Faculty), University College Cork and Green College (UBC). Prof. Davidson currently serves as Director of the Northrop Frye Centre at Victoria College and as Chair of the Manuscript Review Committee of University of Toronto Press.
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In 2022, Professor Davidson was awarded the XXXIV Premi Josep M. Batista i Roca – Memorial Enric Garriga Trullols for the promotion of Catalan culture abroad.
He takes his martini with a little extra vermouth and an olive.
Current Research
By and About Things
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This is a book about objects, the narrative tension generated when they become things, and how select Madrid and Barcelona-based authors and artists from the pre-Civil War era used them in especially innovative ways.
The Scent of Spain: Fragrance, Odour and Culture
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This research project is about the smell of modern Spain. Through examinations of key fragrance notes and accords, both fine and functional, I argue that smell has been an important, yet overlooked, component of late Spanish modernity.